Achoo! Tissues needed in West Volusia

BEACON PHOTO/JAN GIROUX
Tissues for noses — Karen DeVane of the GIFTS program, and Diana Snyder of M&E Fairview Cabinets and Countertops, are joined by members of the Kiwanis Club of DeLand and the Key Club of DeLand High School for a presentation of tissues donated to help West Volusia teachers.

By Jen Horton
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jan 25, 2010 - 9:07:30am

The sniffling season has been especially hard on area schoolteachers, with tissue shortages being reported in many classrooms.

Teachers send home school-supply lists at the beginning of each year, and parents provide enough hand sanitizer and Kleenex to get the school year started.

This year, those supplies have run out in many cases, and some schools don’t let teachers send home midyear requests for more.

GIFTS and the Kiwanis Club of DeLand are stepping in to help.

GIFTS, which stands for Guaranteed Involvement for Teachers & Students, is a local charity that helps teachers get school supplies. But GIFTS doesn’t buy tissues.

“I’ve had so many teachers asking for Kleenex,” GIFTS Executive Director Karen DeVane said. “The teachers need hand sanitizer and Kleenex right now.”

She said some teachers are buying rolls of toilet paper for their students to blow their noses on. Tissues can be expensive, when you start buying enough for 20 little ones with stuffy noses.

GIFTS and the Kiwanis are stocking up, and donations are tax-deductible.

“Because we’re a charity, we give a tax receipt whether it’s a monetary or an in-kind donation,” DeVane said.

To make a donation, or to learn more about GIFTS, contact DeVane at 386-775-2120, or e-mail gifts_inc@yahoo.com.

GIFTS started nine years ago, and is run by volunteers.

“The idea was to get teachers free supplies for classrooms in need,” De-Vane said.

The charity started out with 10 Title I schools in West Volusia. Title I schools are those that have higher percentages of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches.

“In a more affluent area, parents can afford to buy things their children need,” DeVane said. “We try to serve those with the greatest need.”

GIFTS now serves 840 teachers at 14 local schools: Blue Lake Elementary, Starke Elementary, Woodward Avenue Elementary, Deltona Lakes Elementary, Forest Lake Elementary, Friendship Elementary, Pride Elementary, Spirit Elementary, Sunrise Elementary, Timbercrest Elementary, McInnis Elementary, Orange City Elementary, Pierson Elementary and Enterprise Elementary.

The charity has donation drives, and warehouses supplies. Teachers can e-mail lists of items they need. DeVane said GIFTS volunteers fill the orders as quickly as they can.

“The teachers understand if we don’t have something we need,” she said.

The only participation caveat is that the teachers or their students write thank-you notes to GIFTS sponsors.

DeVane said the organization has many wonderful sponsors, including Progress Energy, Bright House Networks, Walmart, area churches, Lions Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs and individual businesses.

More than 200 boxes of tissues were collected by the Kiwanis Club and its high-school counterpart, the Key Club. The club thanked donors, including M&E Fairview Cabinets, Winn-Dixie in the Brandywine Shopping Center, and Walgreens at 3299 N. Woodland Blvd.

Donations for the Tissues for Noses program are still being accepted. Drop them at The Beacon, 110 W. New York Ave. in DeLand, to the attention of staff member Jan Giroux, a Kiwanis member.

— jen@beacononlinenews.com

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